Blonde Turns Legal in Spring, Others Hover???
Date: 13 June 2008
In addition to Priscilla at the Palace in March (See Today’s Other Goss), today’s Daily Mail also predicts that the Broadway transfer of another screen-to-stage musical, Legally Blonde, will have its UK premiere at the Piccadilly Theatre in the spring. Though no official announcement has been made about the show, it too was previously expected to open here at the end of this year (See The Goss, 21 Jan 2008). Currently at the Piccadilly, Grease is booking through to 10 January 2009 with The X-Factor’s Ray Quinn joining the cast from next week (See News, 29 May 2008).
Legally Blonde, which premiered on Broadway in April 2007, is based on the 2001 Hollywood comedy in which Reese Witherspoon played a ditzy West Coast sorority queen who follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School in an attempt to win him back. It has a book by Heather Hach and music and lyrics by husband-and-wife team Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe. Songs include “Ohmigod You Guys”, “Serious”, “The Harvard Variations”, “Whipped into Shape”, “Find My Way” and the title number. It’s directed and choreographed by Whatsonstage.com Award winner Jerry Mitchell Hairspray, The Full Monty.
In a period of changeover in the West End, amongst the other musicals vying for homes are Carousel, Can’t Smile Without You, Funny Girl, The Music Man, Sister Act, Spring Awakening, Gypsy and, further ahead, the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera.
Nothing has yet been announced for the New London theatre, where Gone With the Wind closes tomorrow (See News, 31 May 2008), or the Lyric, where Cabaret closes next weekend (See News, 5 Jun 2008). The Daily Mail also suggests that incoming musicals may soon have another option at the Savoy Theatre where, according to columnist Baz Bamigboye, the new Take That musical Never Forget is struggling. It’s currently booking through to 25 October.
